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His Name is Oscar Grant

“His Name is Oscar Grant” says graffiti beneath a mural at 11th St. & Broadway, the mural depicting civic harmony and multiethnic commuters exiting a BART, now re-captioned: “BART Police Armed with Guns Get to go Home With Wife and Kids.”

On January 31, 2008, Oscar Grant was shot in the back by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle on the Fruitvale station platform. Police confiscated phones and other video-capable devices from bystanders on the platform, but several videos made it out and onto YouTube, where they went viral and were aired on local television. On January 7, a demonstration in mourning and protest of Grant’s killing (and lack of investigation to that point) was held at the Fruitvale BART station. It evolved into a march along International Blvd., around the edge of Lake Merritt and leading to BART offices/headquarters, where police used tear gas and rubber bullets, sending marchers streaming into various parts of downtown. The ensuing “riots” were covered by the national media, although a steady stream of un-edited images and commentary on YouTube, flickr and various independent media sources tell different narratives of that evening, just as cell phone videos from the shooting told a different story than the one BART officials told in the days immediately following the shooting.

Deep Oakland is collecting as many representations of, and responses to these events as possible, from both Oakland residents and media workers. We’re interested in presenting community and independent media footage so that these materials can be accessed easily and considered in relation.

We are also interested in tracking and analysis of corporate media accounts of these events, as such accounts continue to construct a narrative and image system around some ideas of Oakland.

If you have written, read, produced or encountered an article, image, video or audio recording around these events please send a link and/or contact to deep.oakland@gmail.com.